Yesterday, we were suddenly confronted with a major Xero outage, highlighting the critical importance of POS software reliability and business continuity. As a provider of retail technology solutions, we've seen our share of software hiccups, but this incident underscores the software reliability problem for a mission-critical business system.

What happened was that Xero, for many people, stopped.

One of our users described his situation: "It was like showing up to open my filing cabinet and finding the doors welded shut. I had no financial data." This Xero outage couldn't have been planned at a worse time, as it coincided with month-end accounting and the standard payroll processing day for many businesses.

Cloud Accounting Issues and the Need for Multi-Region Cloud Redundancy

The root cause of this problem appears to be a lack of multi-region cloud redundancy. Reports suggest that a single point of failure in Amazon Web Services' North Virginia region caused the Xero outage. This revelation raises serious questions about cloud service reliability and disaster recovery planning for this software.

POS System Uptime: A Critical Factor for Brick-and-Mortar Businesses

To illustrate the problem of POS system uptime, let's consider a scenario where a system is 99.9% reliable, and the shop uses the internet to use POS cloud, EFTPOS and accounting, so we have

= (1-99.9% reliable) x 6 (days a week) / (7 days a week) x 365 (days a year) x 8 hours x 4 services = 10 hours down annually

If internet connectivity is compromised, all cloud-based services are affected, potentially increasing downtime to around 17 hours per year.

I confess it's more complex. For example, if your shop uses a cheap internet service or you work more than eight hours in the shop, you can increase downtime.

It's not uncommon for me to hear my users telling me that something went down and they had staff sitting around doing nothing because the internet was down somewhere.

The Root of Xero Problem: Cloud Service Redundancy

Here's where things get genuinely mind-boggling. If we hear correctly, a single point of failure in Amazon Web Services' North Virginia region caused the Xero Outage. As someone who's worked in software for years, I'm stunned. The idea that a company as massive as Xero doesn't have robust multi-region redundancy is like discovering your bank keeps all its records in one computer.

This revelation, plus their handling, raises serious questions about their cloud accounting software:

-Why were the users not notified that a problem was happening, e.g., via email? Most found out only after doing a Google search.

-How could they have their service rely on a single region?

-What does this say about Xero's disaster recovery planning?

-Their system is pretty pricy; the price should be reflected in what the user gets.  Our POS cloud solution involves several servers in different locations; if one goes down, the others keep working so our users can keep most of their system processing. That is part of the reason for using the cloud.

Our POS cloud solution employs several servers in different locations. If one goes down, others continue functioning, ensuring our users can maintain most of their system processing. This approach is fundamental to our disaster recovery strategy and exemplifies why cloud computing, when done right, can be beneficial for retail.

Xero status updates

While this article was written, we were notified that Xero resolved the issue. Hopefully, they will provide us with a thorough explanation and a plan to stop it from happening again. If you want current information, check out the Xero status page here for the latest updates on the Xero outage here.

Conclusion: Ensuring Small Business Continuity

Consider this a wake-up call as a stark reminder that we need to be prepared for the unexpected in our increasingly digital world.

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If you use cloud backup for your point of sale (POS) system, you may ask yourself: Why does your backup run smoothly sometimes but take an eternity at other times? Let's explore why this happens and what can be done about this.

This came up after my previous post on cloud backup when I was asked this.

What's Cloud Backup?

Firstly cloud backup means storing a copy of your Point of Sale Data to computers far away from your shop. This protects your data if something happens to your shop, like a fire, computer problem, or, what is becoming much more prevalent, theft. A window is smashed, the computer is grabbed, and it's gone in a minute.

Slow cloud backup

Here are some of the most common reasons your cloud backup might be taking a long time:

• Your backup contains a lot of information: Your point of sale system has a lot of data to track! Since it's cheap to store nowadays, most people want as much data as they can keep, as you never know when it's needed. Rarely do people complain they have too much.
• Slow Internet: Australia's internet speeds are no longer being taken seriously and are a low priority. We are now 57th in the world, and countries like Bulgaria and Sebia are higher.

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• Your Internet Plan: A basic internet plan might not be fast enough for big backups. Many people pick their internet purely by price, not by quality. I know price in business is important, but when you have a good price, look around that price for a good service.
• Network congestion: Think of the road traffic during rush hour, In the evening, as people finish dinner and hop online to watch TV, browse, and play video games, the demand for the internet increases. If you are doing speed tests, you should check the times as speed can vary wildly in Australia by time. 
• Encryption and Compression: Encryption scrambles your data for security, and compression shrinks it to save space. These processes take time, especially if your settings are focused on maximum compression instead of speed. Contact your cloud provider to see what can be done here. I set them for lower compression and high speed than most people do.
• Your computer might be busy: Check whether your computer is going flat out when the backup is being done. 
• Your position: The closer you are to where your connection joins the network, the better your speed. Often, there is little one can do about this problem. I argued once with NBN over this on behalf of a client and was told that after the first visit, it would be fixed soon. The second guy claimed to fix it, and the third guy from NBN came in and said there was nothing they could do.

What Makes it Frustrating

The real frustration isn't just the backup time–your shop's computer and internet get super slow while it's happening! Customers can't load websites, and using EFTPOS can be painfully slow, making running your business a struggle. Many cloud backups really suck up the juice of your computers. 

Tips to Make Things Better

Here's what you can do:

• Schedule Backups for Off-Hours: Run your backup at night when the shop's closed (for example, between 1 am and 5 am). This won't impact your day-to-day operations if you do not work then.
• Tweak Compression and encryption (if possible): Many cloud software programs let you adjust the settings to improve the service.
• Upgrade Your Internet (if needed): Talk to your Internet provider about faster plans if they're available and affordable.
• Have a Local Backup Too: It's always smart to have a fast backup on hand (like on a spare computer or external hard drive) in case you need your data super quickly. Cloud backups are great for long-term protection and emergencies!

Let me know if you have any other questions about your cloud backup. ​

Today business needs 24/7 access yet some POS systems are installed on-site on local computers with no cloud. These systems are exposed to many risks, such as data loss. Something goes wrong, and sometimes your data is gone.

So we offer a cloud-based backup. The shop can burn down. Everything inside is lost, and your data is safe. Besides added protection, the added advantage is that using this. You can consult your information anywhere at any time by logging into your cloud backup.

Why do you need 24/7 information access?

Here is an example of a common situation now when two people out of the shop need figures.

Let me give you an example of what happened to me. I went home early one day. I then got an urgent call at 4 pm that some of the information for the stock cost was missing. I tried to help the person on the phone, but they could not get it. So I logged into our cloud system at home and was able to call up the information immediately. That saved me an urgent trip back to work.

Today, we need to have this sort of information immediately.

The Cloud will allow you to better manage and control your shop, even if you are away from it.

Cloud computing is when you do not have the software on your computer but run online on someone else computer.

Latest night, one of our users contact us because Xero was not working. We thought it might have been their password, so we recommended that they changed it. But, they told us that they could not log in to change the password. So we investigated and discovered that Xero was down. Xero admitted the problem. Unfortunately it did not release an ETA time when it would be fixed, something I'm not too fond. Luckily it was not the end of the month, all we could is wait. I did check about 2 am and was relieved to see it was fixed.

This incident highlights one main problem of the cloud: many factors need to happen to make it work. Often like Xero here, besides both your own and Xero computer and equipment, it needs a continuous internet connection to make it work. So the best you can do with the internet connection often is Telstra or Optus and both go down.

That is why we recommend critical systems, e.g. EFTPOS, have a *LOCAL* mode to work offline. That way, if the cloud goes down, you can still function.

That is also why our POS System has a hybrid cloud option.

Cloud computing is incredible.

As this woman above shows, you can be anywhere. This picture was taken at the snow. As long as you have a decent internet connection, you can get into your system. During the COVID lockdown, many clients ran much of their business using the cloud from home. It works great. It is also great for linking if you have several shops into one system. 

Conducting your computer activities through the cloud is now getting more popular. 

Yet, cloud computing depends on your Internet connection. Here are some notable problems with the internet now.

Few people buy high commercial grade internet. I have seen $5,000 a month quoted. For most, it is not worth it, so they buy a cheaper system trusting the claims, which often dubious. If you are our clients, you can call us, and our internet people can help you here. 

Now the internet is under strain since COVID hit. Traffic has skyrocketed. I have clients whose internet often now comes to a halt when it gets busy online. 

When something goes, wrong technicians are harder to get them out to fix the problem. The days of the internet going down and a technician coming the next day is over. It is so frustrating. I know people who have now been waiting for a year to connect to broadband despite being told it was available. 

With the cloud, sometimes it goes quickly and sometimes it takes forever. Get used to that, because it is not changing soon.

In many places, the internet is not up to scratch. 

To make it work, you need all the business-critical software you run on the cloud to have *offline syncing*. If there is a network problem, at least you can work. When the access is restored, the software will automatically sync the files. This way, you run your system on the computers where you are *local mode*. So you have the speed of local computers and the benefit of the cloud.

To do this, you need cloud architecture. It involves emergency internet connections and computers that can handle the replication of data.

We call this hybrid cloud. We have it.

Also if you are running email over the cloud, consider using off-line mode eg Gmail.

Despite everyone going on, Moore's law has peaked, and computers are not getting much faster; well I beg to differ. People want speed. Look at this machine speed specs—our latest servers.

It ranks in the top 82% of computers.

This computer can copy a full movie in half a second. To get that speed, we had to replace the cables with cat8. These have to be the most powerful computers in our marketplace.

If you want some comparison, these servers look at the Mendel range we were selling about a year ago.  

Speed is double. Disk mark is seven times faster.

This is the machine to beat!

With our point of sale, there is a range of solutions for remote working. There are many advantages to doing so for one thing it saves time. You do not have to travel to work to get the information you require, and you can work whenever. The other now is that it increases social distance.

Also, it may be very useful now to set up cloud computing or VPN because if you have staff that can work from home, I am sure that they will appreciate it too.

When I talked to one of my clients who was close to the fires, what did help a little was that their data was in the cloud. Years ago, we often saw in such emergencies merchant would stay in the shop and do a backup before running.  Nowadays although doing the onsite backup is a good idea, the urgency was not there. 

With us, unlike many other Point of Sale providers, cloud backup is free!  

https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Cloud_storage

Data has always been essential to business, in the olden days' Australian bushrangers used to threaten to burn shop keepers books, unless they got paid. It was not a small threat as most shops depended on farmers on lived on credit.  

Data is still essential, and although few want to discuss ‘disaster’ in today’s world as these bushfires show your data is under constant threat. Imagine how your business would run without essential banking, customer and inventory data? Computers can be replaced, data cannot be replaced.

There are many advantages for you to do a cloud backup.

1. Access: You get access to your data wherever you have internet access. For example, you can access your company's data from home, overseas on holidays, etc.

2. Reliability: If anything is wrong with your regular backups, you have an emergency set online.

3. Easier to use: Because it is automated, there is less to remember or do, often it can be set up, so it is entirely automatic.

Two significant disadvantages to consider are:

1. The Internet: It will chew up a fair amount of Internet usage. Often people report that it slows down their system. If so, we may need to see what we can do.

2. Size limitations: If your data file grows too big, you may find your backup suddenly stops.

3. Check: You need to check regularly that it is working.

We have put together here a document that can show you how to set up a free cloud backup. Please click here.

Cloud base is all the buzz now. What it means is that your information is stored on another computer and generally accesses over the internet.

As a company, we have no views on the subject but here is a discussion on some of the ramifications for point of sale systems.

Location

The big plus with cloud is that you can be anywhere as long as you have an internet connection you can access your information. It can be a convenient function particularly if you have several locations.

Budgeting

Cloud systems are generally easier to budget. A fixed fee sets much but not all the hardware and technical aid required.

The disadvantages are several.

Complex

A cloud system is more complicated. Generally, they are run a hybrid system which means they are both cloud and local.

Cost

The cloud is dearer as you need to purchase a good internet service. What we recommend an emergency internet connection as well just in case the primary internet goes down and/or a local computer to act as an emergency server in each location.

Security

If you access cloud anywhere for your information, it is almost sure that other people can access it too. You have very little control over how it is stored and where it is stored. You are looking at a legal issue this could be a problem. You have no idea what the cloud provider is doing with your data.

If the cloud provider closes now which I have seen then your data is possibly gone unless you have a backup. If you have a backup, it is generally a new installation to get you up and running if they close down.

Reliability

If something goes wrong with either the internet and/or the cloud provider, then there is often little you can do until they fix it. Now, these both generally claim about a 99.9% reliability. I think these reliabilities are greatly exaggerated What they mean here by reliability is no service, going slow often does not count in this calculation. But let us assume it is true, that means a shop running 363 days a year, 8 hours a day, then it will be down about 6 hours a year. If you have two locations say two shops or a shop and a warehouse, you can double this to 12 hours. If say you ran an average of 10 hours a day your shop and many of my clients would be running more then you could increase this by 25%.

Without emergency systems in place No internet = No business

This would not include going slow and going slow is a significant problem in a cloud. Come for example 6 pm in a residential area, when many people switch on cable TV to watch something, and all the internet in the area runs slow. Instead of processing in a register going beep, beep, beep, it goes beep (wait) , beep (wait) , beep (wait) . Queues are building up.

Speed

Cloud is slower however with our POS system because it uses a good quality SQL you may not notice the speed drop.